I listened intently to my new colleague from Hamilton Centre.

I would just like her to describe a feeling that we have all felt the first time that we were in this Legislature as an elected official.

I think it’s safe to say that few, if any, of us have faced the challenges that you have getting here—and if you could just describe what it was like coming into the Legislature, as an elected MPP, for the first time.

I thank the speaker for her passionate remarks this morning. I could hear that passion across the aisle. All of us choose to seek elected office in their own timing and pace, and for some it happens later in life, even those with grey hair like mine. I wonder if the member could explain to the House when her decision first arose and when that passion first started for her.

I congratulate the newly elected member from Hamilton Centre on her election on March 16 and joining us in this 43rd Parliament—although the newest member of the provincial Parliament, we will all be in the picture for the 43rd Parliament, with our names on the wall, after this Parliament is complete.

I just want to ask—I get teased about this: I ran a couple of times to try to get here, before I got here. It looks like the member successfully ran and won the first time. Going way, way back, I was in student politics, student government at the University of Toronto, right next door. How many elections has the member run in, compared to me—student included?